Personal Responsibility and the Role of Self-Identity in Adolescents; A Female Regional Australian Perspective

Adolescence and the transition into adulthood present numerous challenges for the individual experiencing it, their peers, and society generally. Personal responsibility has been established as an important consideration of adolescent development as it equips youth to gain greater control over their behaviour, emotions and thinking. In particular, the development of personal responsibility during adolescence remains an important area of research in the fields of psychology and education. What is less known is the relationship between female adolescents’ self-identity and their personal responsibility. This paper presents the findings of an exploratory study investigating female adolescent perspectives of self-identity, personal responsibility and the possible relationship between them in a regional Australian context. Primary data was collected using focus group discussions with female secondary school students in Year 9 and Year 10. The results confirmed the definitional dimensions of the constructs of self-identity and personal responsibility as reported in the literature. Key findings concur with the research propositions that self-identity is positively related to and influences personal responsibility. The relationship is more complex and reciprocal than first understood. The results suggest that rather than a unidirectional relationship between the constructs, each construct influences the other. Peer relations were also found to have a notable influence on the relationship between self-identity and personal responsibility